Jackson Hole Agenda Leaked

The agenda of the annual Jackson Hole (Wyo.) symposium held by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City is a closely guarded secret; those invited are asked to keep the program contents under wraps until the event starts.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch broke the embargo Monday in a note to clients laying out many of the agenda details for the event, which takes place Aug. 22-24. Their mistake, first reported by MarketWatch, is our gain – we now report those agenda details that have been freed from their shackles:

–“The Transmission of Unconventional Monetary Policy” – featuring a paper by that title by Northwestern University’s Arvind Krishnamurthy, to be delivered the morning of Aug. 23

–A panel discussion on “Monetary Policy Options and Tools” also on the morning of Aug. 23. Participants in the panel include Agustín Carstens, governor of the Bank of Mexico, and Frank R. Smets, the research director from the European Central Bank.

–“Global Liquidity,” with a paper by Jean-Pierre Landau of Princeton, on Aug. 24.

–“Cross-Border Capital Flows” by Hélène Rey, a professor at the London Business School, also Aug. 24.

We can also reveal, thanks to BoA, that Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda and Charles Bean, the No. 2 at the Bank of England — their attendance was first reported by the Journal — will be panel members Aug. 24, as will Alexandre Antonio Tombini, the governor of the central bank of Brazil.

BoA concludes that the lack of “major Fed officials scheduled to speak” means “the markets are likely to pay a lot less attention to Jackson Hole than in the past.” The Kansas City Fed probably wishes the writers paid more attention to their ground rules.

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